Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Raikkonen would like more time to do more motor racing

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen has admitted that would would love to take part in more forms of motor racing if his Formula One commitments would allow. Raikkonen's comments came as he addressed the media at today's FIA Driver press conference ahead of Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix, the jewel in the Formula One calendar.

The Finn took a break from Formula after being replaced by Fernando Alonso at the end of the 2009 season. During his time away from Formula One Raikkonen drove in the World Rally Championship for Citroen and also raced in the NASCAR series in the United States.

Raikkonen's comments come as NASCAR star Kurt Busch prepares for a weekend double header of the Indianapolis 500, IndyCar's flagship race. He will drive for the Andretti Autosport team and will start the race from 12th place on the grid where driver's start three on each row of the grid. Following the 500 race, Busch will fly to North Carolina to compete in NASCAR's premier race, the Coca-Cola 600.

Following his championship win with the Williams team in 1992, Nigel Mansell competed in the 1993 Indianapolis 500, a race which the Englishman won. He remains to this day, the only driver to have held both the Formula One world championshiit ip and the Indy 500 title at the same time.

Raikkonen believes that Formula One could learn a lot from team's allowing their driver's to compete in other racing categories alongside their F1 commitments but understands that contractually team's are reluctant to do this. The Iceman also believes that the other sports would benefit from the input from F1 driver's.